Yolanda Miller, a teacher at Richmond Hill HS in Queens. (Dave Sanders)

Civil rights pioneer W.E.B. DuBois’s epigram, “The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defense, else what shall save us from a second slavery?” was the subtext of the Dec. 10 Stand for Freedom march and rally for voting rights that drew what rally organizers estimated were tens of thousands of demonstrators, including more than 700 UFT members.

The rally — on United Nations Human Rights Day — was sparked by recent Republican efforts to restrict voting rights by introducing photo ID requirements, shortening early voting and making it more difficult to register to vote. In 2011 alone, 14 states passed laws undermine the right to vote, an effort that NYU Law School’s Brennan  Center for Justice estimates could disenfranchise five million voters. Moreover, two-thirds of state legislatures introduced such laws this year. A recent NAACP report documents the disproportionate effect the new restrictions have on people of color, low-income, student, immigrant and senior voters. Continue reading →

GuildNet RNs (from left) Joan Schmidt and Brenda Williams and (from right) Meredith Nicolas and Cassandra Dowling with (center, from left) Renee Setteducato of Brooklyn’s Lutheran Medical Center and Cynthia McDaniel of Manhattan’s Jewish Home and Hospital Home Care, the Federation of Nurses/UFT chapter leaders who helped with their organizing drive. (Pat Arnow)

Federation of Nurses/UFT organizers scored an impressive victory on May 25 when registered nurses at GuildNet, a managed long-term home care operation run by the Jewish Guild for the Blind, voted solidly to join the UFT nurses group.

Despite an anti-union campaign by the employer, GuildNet nurses voted 72 to 22 in a National Labor Relations Board-certified election to form the new 168-nurse bargaining unit. Included are 21 out-of-state telecommuting RNs responsible for record keeping.

“It was an old-time union struggle, which is the only way to fight these days,” said UFT Special Representative Anne Goldman, who headed the organizing effort. Continue reading →

Lower Manhattan on May 12 was flooded with tens of thousands of educators, other unionized workers, students, community advocates and New Yorkers of all stripes calling for a fundamental reordering of the city’s priorities.

• Read the story at uft.org
• View the photo gallery at uft.org

There’s a political action committee called Democrats for Education Reform. A great name, but I heard that they only support nonunion charter schools, bash unions and get subsidized by Wall Street hedge-fund managers. What’s up with that?

You heard right. They’re like other public school bashers, except they call themselves Democrats. Democrats for Education Reform claims that it “leads efforts to frame the fight that is playing out within the Democratic Party on education issues.” It tries to accomplish that by pushing aside teacher unions as education spokespeople or even as informed practitioners. The organization advocates for nonunion charter schools, vouchers, merit pay, test-based teacher evaluations, curbs on tenure and removing teacher unions from almost any role in shaping curriculum or determining working conditions.

In just three years, DFER directed more than $17 million into political and grassroots advocacy for its version of education reform and for what Joe Williams, the group’s executive director and a former Daily News education reporter, credits as “creating momentum which has the potential to dominate education policymaking for years to come.” Continue reading →

The documentary “The Lottery” is long on propaganda and short on truth.

Novice filmmaker Madeleine Sackler’s debut documentary, “The Lottery,” appears at first glance to be a compelling look at four families’ search for the best education for their children. The action follows them in the months leading up to the lottery at which the next incoming class at Eva Moskowitz’s Harlem Success Academy charter schools will be chosen. And as they struggle with issues like imprisonment, disability and immigration, it is hard not to root for these working parents and their kids.

Unfortunately, the film is long on propaganda and short on truth. It appeals to the audience’s emotions and natural sympathy for the underdog, but it is hardly an unbiased look at the biggest issue in public education today. Even The New York Times described it as a “commercial” for Moskowitz’s charter schools.

Continue reading →

In “Gravity’s Rainbow,” novelist Thomas Pynchon wrote, “If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers.”

For nearly 80 years, the corporate-backed nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission has asked the wrong questions about city and state financing: What government spending and taxes can we cut? What public sector workers can we lay off? What can we privatize?

Rarely has it looked at how to equitably increase public revenues or how to make public sector jobs more meaningful and more productive, not simply fewer and less well-paid.

The self-appointed “commission” markets itself as a good government organization, but it is far from a neutral body representing the interests of all New York City citizens. Continue reading →

Celebrating the results of the ratification vote are (from left) Lourdes Lebron, Melvina Van Dros, Chapter Leader Tammie Miller, Carolyn Roman and Kiaha Willard of the UFT Family Child Care Providers Chapter. (Miller Photography)

In a groundbreaking vote, UFT-represented family child care providers on Jan. 15 ratified their first-ever contract with the state.

Providers cast 3,658 ballots in favor of the agreement and 54 against.

“This is an enormous step forward for New York City’s 28,000 family child care providers in our fight for justice and dignity,” said Provider Chapter Chair Tammie Miller following the morning vote count at the American Arbitration Association. “We have waited years for this day and it is finally here.” Continue reading →

Miller Photography

UFT delegates at their Nov. 18 meeting overwhelmingly approved a resolution that authorizes the union leadership to seek the intervention of the state’s Public Employment Relations Board if necessary.

In the same resolution, the DA also authorized the union leadership to create a mobilization committee to help achieve a fair contract.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew called the authorization an important “tool at our disposal” should the 300-member bargaining committee determine that negotiations have become deadlocked.

“I think it is very important that we trust their judgment, since we have given them that responsibility,” he said. Continue reading →